Reply to this post Some of Snap’s woes look self-inflicted. Snap appears to be losing key influencers to Facebook not because of a copied service from Facebook, but because Snap is not making it very easy for them to make money. Influencers are social media personalities with large numbers of followers that are paid by...
Reply to this post Huawei needs its own algorithms to succeed in AI. Huawei abandoned its habit of launching a new phone at IFA 2017 and instead focused on a new chipset called the Kirin 970 that promises all usual the bells and whistles as well as artificial intelligence. Huawei made some bold claims regarding...
Reply to this post Android One will only ever benefit Google. Xiaomi and Google are resurrecting the Android One program but given what Xiaomi has launched, the original aim of Android One has clearly been completely abandoned. The idea behind Android One was to provide a reference implementation of Android optimised for Google’s services that...
Reply to this post Another step to fully proprietary Android. Android Auto and Wear are fully proprietary and I continue to see incremental moves by Google that lead inexorably towards fully proprietary Android on smartphones. Following on from Project Treble (see here), Google is now starting to clamp down on kernel usage by Android smartphone...
Reply to this post There are very good reasons to launch SiriKit. Apple has made some changes to executive responsibility for Siri that I see as a sign that things are not going very well and that changes are required. Given Siri’s weakness, I don’t see much downside for Apple in allowing third parties to...
Reply to this post Hardware still taking the back seat to software. This year’s IFA is more about those that are providing the software that runs the products rather than the products themselves. IFA has become Europe’s answer to CES and this year it is bigger and better than ever. However, although there is a...
Reply to this post Google has everything to do. Google is great at getting third parties to build hardware that uses its software, but needs to work on developers of smart home devices if it wants to trounce Amazon. Following the general availability of the Google Assistant SDK that allows anyone to embed Google Assistant...
Reply to this post HERE has more potential but needs to execute. Google is upping the ante in the race to provide value-added services on top of digital maps, but with the right execution, HERE should be able to provide a much better service. In January Google launched its parking difficulty icon on Android Maps...
RFM has gone camel racing but will return to active duty on Aug 30th.
Richard is founder, owner of research company, Radio Free Mobile. He has 16 years of experience working in sell side equity research. During his 11 year tenure at Nomura Securities, he focused on the equity coverage of the Global Technology sector.
Google Auto – Greek gift pt. III.
Reply to this post Waymo’s time is now. Google’s self-driving division, Waymo, is currently by far the best option for anyone looking for an autonomous driving offering with two caveats: First: It is likely to come at a heavy price in terms of data and long-term differentiation Second: By the time autonomous driving is critical,...